Yes the grass is that green! And we were near a lot of parks, so you don't see it many other places in the city! But they get such constant light rain, which I think is probably why.

Alright, Still haven’t gotten through all the pictures from that first day we had our walking tour. Next up was the parliament area. We saw Big Ben which we will be going inside of during a class field trip.

Big Ben

Then we walked down government road, we saw the Prime Minister housing (above).

Supposedly this is the area in the 7th Harry Potter where they’re breaking into the Ministry of Magic. Recognize the statue?

And Diagon Alley/The Leaky Cauldron

Continuing on we saw the Tower of London, which is not really a tower but a royal palace and fortress. It was built by William the Conqueror in 1078 and was used for royal residences. It depicted the new ruling of London, then later was used as a prison. It is off the Thames river, where we also day the Tower Bridge. Across the Thames River we saw a more modern part of London. This includes City Hall and a new architectural building called the Shard. It will have a jagged top so it looks like a shard of glass. You can see its construction in a picture below.

The Tower of London, fortress wall

The four towers of the Tower of London

Tower Bridge

The modern area - City Hall is the round building on the left, The Shard is being constructed on the right

The next day, after our first class was postponed, we thought we’d get a hearty meal at the original Hard Rock Café, which is near Buckingham Palace.

Shannon, Allie, Lauren, Me, and Jake

That night we had a reception with the rest of the students studying abroad through this program. They are all here for the semester. Also, that night we ventured around Piccadilly Circus to find the Icebar. It was pretty cool, but kind of cheesy and touristy. We had a pretty fun time once we found it! We didn’t know the exact address, so we swore from then on, we would know exactly where we were headed when we left our flat! .. We’ve still been struggling with that, which you’ll hear more about later!

Shannon, Allie, Lauren, and Me

I really like the roomies. We've been having a good time experiencing London together.

I heard Miss Nebraska won Miss USA! What else am I missing back home?!